At Ohio GOP state dinner, strings together “tears in their eyes” and “Sir” vignettes to validate his agenda

In remarks at the Ohio Republican Party state dinner in Columbus, Trump stacked multiple versions of his recurring testimonial vignette: unnamed people approaching him emotionally to validate his actions. He claimed “strong” local business owners had “tears in their eyes” over former CFPB director Richard Cordray’s banking regulations, and then pivoted into a policy-brag story about pharmaceutical companies: after he expressed displeasure about price increases, he said he got calls telling him, “Sir, they are rescinding their price increases.” He also repeated a similar “Sir” origin story about Veterans Choice (“Sir, we've been trying to get that approved for 40 years”). The result is propaganda-by-anecdote: emotional, unverifiable scenes are used as proof that Trump’s governance is effective and humane.

"Sir, they are rescinding their price increases." — Ohio Republican Party state dinner remarks (Columbus, Ohio), August 24, 2018